scholarly journals Bringing to Life a Newly Discovered Signature of Fatigue Crack Initiation via Multimodal Characterizations

Author(s):  
Dalton Shadle ◽  
Kelly Nygren ◽  
Jean Stinville ◽  
Marie Charpagne ◽  
Timothy Long ◽  
...  

Abstract Fatigue is the most prevalent failure mode in structural materials, yet remains challenging to study due to the seemingly unpredictable nature of crack initiation. To elucidate the driving forces of crack initiation in ductile polycrystalline metals, we employ a multimodal approach to identify and track grains with a suspected potential to initiate fatigue cracks via a newly founded signature. We discover this crack initiation potential (CIP) signature under the hypothesis that slip localization, a well-known precursor to crack initiation, is linked to intragrain misorientation, which can be quantified through single grain orientation distributions. We verify the CIP signature in an Inconel-718 material via static two-dimensional and three-dimensional electron microscopy and “bring to life” the dynamics of the CIP signature via in-situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction. With this CIP signature, we move to better focus studies of fatigue crack initiation on the individual grains and processes that drive fatigue failure.

2011 ◽  
Vol 70 ◽  
pp. 141-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ran Li ◽  
W. Sun ◽  
Thomas H. Hyde ◽  
Edward J. Williams ◽  
Xing Guo Wang

A fatigue crack growth test program has been carried out on hollow, SuperCMV shaft specimens, with transverse holes, under combined torsional and axial loading. The experimental results show that fatigue cracks always initiated in the stress concentration areas, i.e., in the transverse holes. Up to four cracks were observed to be initiated at different positions near the holes in the shafts. The fatigue crack propagation was initially found to occur under Mode I conditions, followed by a period of mixed Mode II/III crack growth. Three dimensional, finite element, elastic-plastic analyses have also been conducted, in an attempt to predict the crack-initiation locations and lives. The predicted crack-initiation sites agree with the experimental observations, for a range of loading conditions. The initiation sites were found to be approximately on the planes of maximum principal stress. The predicted, torque-dominated, fatigue lives of the shafts, obtained by use of a stress-life (S-N) approach, correlate reasonably well with the experimental results.


2014 ◽  
Vol 891-892 ◽  
pp. 1711-1716 ◽  
Author(s):  
Loic Signor ◽  
Emmanuel Lacoste ◽  
Patrick Villechaise ◽  
Thomas Ghidossi ◽  
Stephan Courtin

For conventional materials with solid solution, fatigue damage is often related to microplasticity and is largely sensitive to microstructure at different scales concerning dislocations, grains and textures. The present study focuses on slip bands activity and fatigue crack initiation with special attention on the influence of the size, the morphology and the crystal orientation of grains and their neighbours. The local configurations which favour - or prevent - crack initiation are not completely identified. In this work, the identification and the analysis of several crack initiation sites are performed using Scanning Electron Microscopy and Electron Back-Scattered Diffraction. Crystal plasticity finite elements simulation is employed to evaluate local microplasticity at the scale of the grains. One of the originality of this work is the creation of 3D meshes of polycrystalline aggregates corresponding to zones where fatigue cracks have been observed. 3D data obtained by serial-sectioning are used to reconstruct actual microstructure. The role of the plastic slip activity as a driving force for fatigue crack initiation is discussed according to the comparison between experimental observations and simulations. The approach is applied to 316L type austenitic stainless steels under low-cycle fatigue loading.


Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (16) ◽  
pp. 4383
Author(s):  
Shafique Ahmed ◽  
Thomas Schumacher ◽  
Erik T. Thostenson ◽  
Jennifer McConnell

This article describes research that investigated the ability of a carbon nanotube (CNT) sensor to detect and monitor fatigue crack initiation and propagation in metal structures. The sensor consists of a nonwoven carrier fabric with a thin film of CNT that is bonded to the surface of a structure using an epoxy adhesive. The carrier fabric enables the sensor to be easily applied over large areas with complex geometries. Furthermore, the distributed nature of the sensor improves the probability of detecting crack initiation and enables monitoring of crack propagation over time. Piezoresistivity of the sensor enables strains to be monitored in real time and the sensor, which is designed to fragment as fatigue cracks propagate, directly measures crack growth through permanent changes in resistance. The following laboratory tests were conducted to evaluate the performance of the sensor: (1) continuous crack propagation monitoring, (2) potential false positive evaluation under near-threshold crack propagation conditions, and (3) crack re-initiation detection at a crack-stop hole, which is a commonly used technique to arrest fatigue cracks. Real-time sensor measurements and post-mortem fractography show that a distinguishable resistance change of the sensor occurs due to fatigue crack propagation that can be quantitatively related to crack length. The sensor does not show false positive responses when the crack does not propagate, which is a drawback of many other fatigue sensors. The sensor is also shown to be remarkably sensitive to detecting crack re-initiation.


2012 ◽  
Vol 197 ◽  
pp. 798-801
Author(s):  
Yu Rong Jiang ◽  
Mei Bao Chen

It is impossible to keep pipelines free from defects in the manufacturing, installation and servicing processes. In this paper, pre-tension deformation of X60 pipeline steel was employed to experimentally simulate the influence of dents and the mechanism of fatigue crack initiation of X60 pipeline steel after per-tension deformation under cyclic loading were investigated. The results indicate that the mechanism of fatigue crack initiation is the typical cleavage fracture characteristics and the cracks mainly initiates from the non-metallic inclusions which was the local brittle fracture materials such as MnS inclusion. With the pre-tension deformation increase, the yield strength of the matrix was increased and the toughness decreased due to the work-hardening effect. With the effects of the non-metallic inclusions larger, the fatigue cracks initiated from the non-metallic inclusions easier.


2007 ◽  
Vol 74 (18) ◽  
pp. 2981-2991 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinyue Huang ◽  
Angelika Brückner-Foit ◽  
Michael Besel ◽  
Yasuko Motoyashiki

2018 ◽  
Vol 165 ◽  
pp. 20003
Author(s):  
Hongqian Xue ◽  
Tao Gao ◽  
Zhidan Sun ◽  
Xianjie Zhang

Cyclic torsional fatigue properties of a high strength steel 100Cr6 are investigated using an ultrasonic torsional fatigue testing machine, and the results are compared with those obtained with fatigue tests under axial loading. Fatigue crack initiation and growth under torsion loading are observed in the very high cycle regime. Results show that fatigue cracks initiated from specimen surface as well as subsurface inclusions under torsion loading. However, subsurface MnS inclusions play a dominant role in crack initiation under torsion loading in the very high cycle regime. The initiation and early propagation of fatigue cracks are mostly controlled by the direction of the maximum shear stress. For surface crack initiation, cracks initiated in parallel to the longitudinal direction of the specimens. Once the shear crack propagated to a crack length of about 20-30 μm, crack branched to the angle close to the direction perpendicular to the remote maximum principal stresses. As for the subsurface fatigue crack initiation, the cracks parallel to the longitudinal direction of the specimens could not be observed, and crack propagation followed a spiral shape on a plane with an orientation of 45° with respect to the loading direction, which corresponds to the maximum principal stress plane.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1016 ◽  
pp. 1003-1008
Author(s):  
Yoshikazu Nakai ◽  
Shoichi Kikuchi ◽  
Kaito Asayama ◽  
Hayata Yoshida

Fatigue tests were conducted under several stress ratios, including negative maximum stress to elucidate the fatigue crack initiation mechanism of a magnesium alloy, AZ31. The specimen surface near the crack initiation site was analyzed by EBSD. On the basis of the results of EBSD analysis, it is concluded for an alternating cyclic stress condition (fully reversed cyclic stress) that fatigue cracks formed from grains where both the grain size and Schmid factor of the basal slip system are large, and that the crack initiation mechanism is based on irreversible slipping and unrelated to twinning. Under compression-compression fatigue test (R=10), cracks were formed along boundary of grains with large Schmid factor and misfit of both side grain are large. At the tip of the initiated crack, twin bands were observed.


Author(s):  
Omesh K. Chopra

This paper examines the mechanism of fatigue crack initiation in austenitic stainless steels (SSs) in light water reactor (LWR) coolant environments. The effects of key material and loading variables, such as strain amplitude, strain rate, temperature, level of dissolved oxygen in water, and material heat treatment on the fatigue lives of wrought and cast austenitic SSs in air and LWR environments have been evaluated. The influence of reactor coolant environments on the formation and growth of fatigue cracks in polished smooth SS specimens is discussed. Crack length as a function of fatigue cycles was determined in air and LWR environments. The results indicate that decreased fatigue lives of these steels are caused primarily by the effects of the environment on the growth of cracks <200 μm and, to a lesser extent, on enhanced growth rates of longer cracks. A detailed metallographic examination of fatigue test specimens was performed to characterize the fracture morphology. Exploratory fatigue tests were conducted to enhance our understanding of the effects of surface micropits or minor differences in the surface oxide on fatigue crack initiation.


2013 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 331-337 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.L. Zhang ◽  
D. Liu ◽  
H.M. Wang

AbstractThermal fatigue damage of high-temperature titanium alloys is of great concern for severe temperature-fluctuating environment, and the thermal fatigue crack initiation stage plays a crucial role in thermal fatigue life. In present study, thermal fatigue tests keeping 55 seconds at 700 °C followed by water cooling 15 seconds at 20 °C were performed for the laser deposited high-temperature titanium alloy Ti60A (Ti5.54Al3.38Sn3.34Zr0.37Mo0.46Si). Thermal fatigue cracks initiate after 800 thermal fatigue cycles with a length of 20 µm. Subsequently numerous cracks grow to 500 µm and cause severe degradation after 1000 cycles. To investigate the crack initiation behavior, microstructural changes during thermal fatigue process were examined by OM, SEM, EPMA and TEM. Thermal fatigue cracks initiate preferably at grain boundaries, α/β interfaces, microvoids, and abnormal coarsened α produced by oxygen interstitial solution. Mechanisms of thermal fatigue crack initiation are related to compatibility of local deformation and microstructural changes during thermal fatigue process.


2014 ◽  
Vol 891-892 ◽  
pp. 815-820 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raphaël Guerchais ◽  
Franck Morel ◽  
Nicolas Saintier

The aim of this study is to analyse the influence of both the microstructure and defects on the high cycle fatigue behaviour of the 316L austenitic stainless steel, using finite element simulations of polycrystalline aggregates. High cycle fatigue tests have been conducted on this steel under uniaxial (push-pull) and multiaxial (combined in-phase tension and torsion) loading conditions, with both smooth specimens and specimens containing artificial semi-spherical surface defects. 2D numerical models, using a cubic elastic constitutive model, are created to determine the degree of heterogeneity of the local stress parameters as a function of the defect size. This has been done for one microstructure using several orientation sets generated from the initial texture of the material. The grains are explicitly modelled and the anisotropic behaviour of each FCC crystal is described by the generalized Hookes law with a cubic elasticity tensor. From the simulations carried out with different defect sizes and orientation sets that are representative of the real texture of the tested material, statistical information regarding mesoscopic mechanical fields provides useful insight into the microstructural dependence of the driving forces for fatigue crack nucleation at the mesoscopic scale (or the scale of individual grains). The results in terms of the stress fields and fatigue crack initiation conditions are determined at both the mesoscopic and macroscopic scales. The results from these FE models are used along with an original probabilistic mesomechanics approach to quantify the defect size effect. The resulting predictions, which are sensitive to the microstructure, include the probability distribution of the high cycle fatigue strength.


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